Kuleshov Effect: How Context Shapes Emotional Perception in Film and Beyond

During the early 20th century, Soviet filmmaker Lev Kuleshov underscored the importance of film editing by alternating video of an actor’s neutral facial expression with emotional scenes. He noted that contextual framing led viewers to attribute distinct emotional states to the same expression. Subsequent empirical research has validated the Kuleshov effect, demonstrating that facial affect perception is highly influenced by contextual cues. Indeed, the perception of context-free faces, as typically examined in psychological and psychiatric research, is the exception in real-world environments rather than the norm.